State Library of NSW and Wikipedia unite in Australia's first GLAM residency

Wikipedia is set to experience a dramatic increase in Australian content with the State Library of NSW becoming the first Australian cultural institution to engage a GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) Wikipedian-in-residence.

According to Alex Byrne, NSW State Librarian & Chief Executive: “There’s limited Australian content on Wikipedia compared to USA and Europe, and we want to provide more. The Wikipedian-in-residence will enable local knowledge to be more easily accessible on one of the world’s most popular websites.”

Over a 14-week residency Wikipedian Gillian White will equip 20 library staff with the skills to create and contribute authoritative content to Wikipedia on the significant people, places and events in NSW and Australia.

“Librarians are a natural fit with Wiki as they are trained professionals with a passion for sharing knowledge, and appreciate the importance of referencing credible sources within their online contributions – it’s not commonly known that Wikipedia articles and edits must be accurately referenced,” says Ms White.

The newly trained library staff will be using the State Library’s extensive collections on Australia and its region to contribute valuable content to Wikipedia articles on the Blue Mountains, the convict era, WWI servicemen, Indigenous sacred sites, and many others.

“The State Library is committed to making content from our significant collections more accessible, more discoverable and re-usable, and the GLAM Wikipedian-in-residence project is an important step to the Library becoming a key global resource,” says Alex Byrne, NSW State Librarian & Chief Executive.

Comments

This would be the second. The first was with the National Sports Information Center + Australian Paralympic Committee in Canberra. It provided a very clear case study on dramatic increase in content. The value of this WiR and the related work has been recognised by the WMF in WM-AU's funding request as one of the most successful programs done by the chapter.

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